Finally, my favorite: a leather glove that looked seriously lethal. I put it on and studied my hand. There was a button in the center of the palm. I made a fist and a small crescent-shaped blade darted out and instantly retracted. Fast and deadly. Just how I liked it. My enemies wouldn’t even see it coming.
All at once three beasts rushed in, skidding across the floor. Or maybe I should say six beasts, given that they each had two heads. I leapt down and ran toward them, brandishing the machine gun. When they launched themselves at me I threw myself to my knees and slid across the floor, reducing them to Swiss cheese. Only one escaped my wrath. It leapt onto the wall and began to run upside-down across the ceiling, coming dangerously close. Damn, the machine gun was out of bullets. I pulled out the nail gun, but my first shots missed the target, which moved swiftly, preparing to attack. When it leapt at me, I swung the scythe off my shoulder and slashed it through the air, chopping the beast in two.
The thud it made hitting the ground was drowned out by an ominous howl coming from the corridor. I raced out the door only to freeze in my tracks. “Fuck!” There were too many of them. Some were walking on the walls, others on the ceiling, defying the laws of physics.
Not much ammunition was left. I threw a grenade at them and sprinted in the opposite direction, turning the corner seconds before it exploded and barely dodging the blast of fire and debris.
I peeked back around the corner. The corridor was a tunnel of flames. Suddenly one of the monsters leapt out of the inferno straight at me. I reacted instinctively, firing a shot that knocked it off its course. But there were others, many others. The flames hadn’t stopped them. I started running again, trying to shake them.
With each corner I turned, I was more and more convinced I was running in circles in that damned labyrinth. My suspicions were confirmed when I passed the room with the safe again: it was a prison. My mission was to figure out how to escape it. But first I had to shake the two-headed hounds of Hades.
I entered the room. I heard them coming closer, panting, howling for blood, their claws scraping the floor, grating on my nerves. The door to the safe shifted, suggesting my next move. I climbed up to the ceiling and crawled inside it, discovering it was a perfect fit.
The multitude of beasts streamed into the room and I held my breath. Luckily they were stupid. When they saw the empty room they didn’t stop to look around, but instead, bounded off into the hallway, scrambling over each other to get back on my trail.
All except one.
The beast that stayed behind came closer and stopped in the center of the room, where it took its time sniffing the air. It knew I was there. Jumping onto the wall, it crept onto the ceiling just like that.
Its low growl came closer and closer. I took out the gun and gripped it tightly when the creature’s eye peered into the opening. It had found me. I prepared to shoot, but instead of nudging the safe open the beast rammed it shut with its head. The lock clicked, trapping me inside. The safe was a perfect coffin in which I had buried myself alive.
I pounded my fists against the door, trying to open it and pushed against it with my feet with all my might, gritting my teeth from the pain in my shoulder. It was no use. The bite from the hound of Hades throbbed and burned like fire. Turning into one of them was the last thing I needed.
But this wasn’t a horror flick. It was a game, and I had to find my way out. I tried to pry the lock open with the blade of my knife, but I was SOL. A drop of sweat slid down my forehead. All it would take was the other Champions finding their way out before me and I would be screwed. Goodbye, Stella. If I had to lose I would rather be torn to shreds than end up trapped like a moron.
It was pitch black in the safe. I ran my hands over the walls and my fingers touched something that felt like a series of buttons. One, two, three. Identical in shape and size. I didn’t know what color they were but I hoped I wouldn’t press the red one. In the movies the people who pushed the red button were always fucked.
“Okay,” I murmured to myself. “Choose one, Drake.”
I pressed the one in the middle and a sudden commotion shook the safe. My head began to spin and I braced myself. It felt like the safe was tumbling down a hill inside a Zorb ball. When everything stopped I found myself upside down, trapped beneath my own weight. “This is why I’ve always hated carnival rides,” I muttered.
I tried again, this time with the button on the left. A massive force plastered me to the roof of the safe as it plunged down like an elevator whose cables have snapped. I felt like a gnat hitting a windshield. When the descent ended, one of the walls opened, spilling me out onto the ground.
Man, I hoped Stella wasn’t watching this. It was definitely not sexy.
I stood up cautiously and found myself in a garage full of strange, futuristic-looking cars. No one was there. Not yet, at least. I was about to walk out when I remembered there were three buttons in the safe. One was left.
Maybe I should just leave . . . or maybe not. To hell with it! I went back and pressed the last button, the one on the right. The safe lit up. I was right: it had become an elevator. The mirror on the back wall reflected my image. Not bad. The wound on my shoulder, though, was disgusting. Why hadn’t it already healed like all the others? Were the effects of Kreeshna’s blood wearing off? I studied it. Maybe the wound was too deep even for the Witch’s powers.
Something glinted in the mirror, grabbing my attention. A black droplet swelled on its surface and began to slide down, followed by another. It was like the mirror was oozing demon blood.
A message appeared:
Three keys to stay in, but not to get out.
As you find them, a sacrifice must come about.
The black one is deadly, the green one is quick.
But be brave and beware of the red one’s trick.
I was perplexed as I tried to memorize the message. It was a clue. Three keys to stay in, but not to get out. It was talking about the first level. I had no idea what the rest meant, but one thing was clear: I had to find three keys in order to complete the mission and advance past this level. The black blood oozed down over the writing, creating a ghastly design.
The sudden wail of a car alarm made me spin around. Headlights flashed on and tires squealed ominously as a car shot toward me like a missile. I leapt to one side and it swerved to avoid crashing into the wall. By the time I got to my feet and started running, the car was chasing me again.
The garage was huge, packed with empty cars. Beautiful, unusual-looking ones. Some were streamlined, others rounded. They looked like prototypes or cars from the future. I had never seen anything like them.
To shake my pursuer, I jumped onto the car hoods and tops, but the bastard wasn’t letting up. I had no idea who it was and couldn’t see through the windshield. Opening the car doors didn’t work—they were all locked. I smashed in a window with my elbow and climbed inside one before he arrived. It was easy enough to get it started, but a glance at the gas gauge instantly dashed my hopes.
Then I looked up and saw it: a futuristic two-wheeler straight out of my most forbidden dreams. Ever since I’d ended up in that hellhole I’d longed to get back on a motorcycle.
I crawled back through the window and leapt from roof to roof to reach it more quickly. It started up instantly. At the same moment, all the other cars in the garage started up as well, as though they’d awakened from a dream. They tried to block my way, but I reared up and raced out of the garage.
My pursuer drew even with me but I shot off, chasing the wind. The roar of my bike’s engine drowned out the revving of the cars that echoed through the garage. As adrenaline pumped through my body, I looked over my shoulder. More cars had begun to chase me and that bastard was still right on my tail. I sped up even more. God, had I missed that sensation. All those late-night races against my brothers had taught me well. That Soul didn’t have a chance in hell of catching up with me.
Even the scenario seemed like a futuristic movie. We passed
beneath a bridge and I revved the accelerator, making the two-wheeled beast beneath me roar. When the car pulled up alongside me, the Soul at the wheel offered me a grisly smile. He wasn’t Insane yet, but he was definitely well on his way.
As I watched him, his eyes flickered green, just for a second, just long enough for me to understand. The Soul accelerated and passed me. He wasn’t chasing me. I was the one who had to catch him. That nasty son of a bitch. He was the key.
22
Leveling Up
The first level was a chase, then. No one but a Witch could have thought of hiding the keys inside the Damned. The only way to get the first one—the green one—was to kill him, but the bastard was fast. Just like the clue said.
I accelerated and the motorcycle reared up. It wasn’t difficult to pull up next to him, since I was good at hot pursuits, but just when I reached peak speed the car took off, disappearing from sight.
Who the fuck was he? Toretto? I would never catch him. Furious, I looked down at the bike and noticed a button. It was red, as I had feared. Challenging fate, I pressed it. The front wheel lifted off the ground and the bike zoomed off like a missile.
When I got close to the Green Lantern, a group of motorcycles raced in my direction, trying to catch me. I tilted my bike and skidded into them. Pressing the button again, I continued the chase, the front tire rising up with a roar.
The road in front of us suddenly veered upward, curling into a spectacular loop-the-loop that we could only complete without losing traction by going at top speed. My adversary sped up, making his intentions clear. I followed him without hesitation. The hardest part was letting go of the bike. When I reached the very top of the loop, I released my grip on the handlebars and leapt into the void. As planned, I crashed down onto the hood of his car. Man, did that hurt! I gasped for breath. That wasn’t how I’d imagined the landing.
I watched the motorcycle crash to the ground, then turned toward the Soul behind the windshield. “You’ll pay for this.”
He swerved, trying to throw me off the car. Time to pull out the nail gun. Only one shot was left, but I didn’t care. I squeezed the trigger and the nail lodged in the windshield, forming a thick spider web of cracks. Instead of braking, as I’d expected, the car accelerated even more. My body slammed against the windshield, sending shards flying.
I found myself inside the car. The Soul looked at me, his gaze devoid of humanity. Fuck, was he ugly. “Wanna give me a lift?” I grabbed him by the back of the head and smashed his corpse-like face into the dashboard over and over.
The car spun around and headed down a street. I could see it came to an abrupt end scant yards ahead of us. Shit. I grabbed the Soul and dragged him out of the moving car a millisecond before it flew into the void. We tumbled to the ground, rolling to a stop, but I shot to my feet instantly to avoid losing my advantage. I punched him in the face and held him tight, afraid he would escape.
Beyond the edge of the cliff, the car burst into a chain reaction of explosions. The blast was deafening and the heat burned my skin. The Soul opened his mouth to scream but didn’t have the chance. His face burned to cinders and disintegrated, his eyes glimmering green before the wind whirled his ashes away.
Disoriented, I frowned. His threadbare jacket was still in my fist, but not a trace of him was left. I rifled through his pockets and felt something. Was it the key? I quickly pulled it out. It was burning hot and didn’t look like a key, just a piece of curved metal. Its green glow, however, made it perfectly clear: I’d found it.
The glow faded, confirming that I was right.
There were two left.
I looked up. The scenario had changed. No more futuristic landscape. Now it looked more like an episode of The Walking Dead. There was an overpass with cars on it, but they were all just sitting there abandoned, their doors open, as though everyone had unexpectedly run off. There was even the wreckage of a helicopter that had crashed into an overturned bus. I dragged myself to my feet and set off walking toward a city I glimpsed on the horizon.
No fuel in the gas tanks, but I found something even more precious: munitions. I reloaded all my weapons and leaned against a car to catch my breath, wondering how my opponents were making out. I looked up at the sky, where I knew the Witches were watching us. Their spirits weren’t really up there, though. They were with us, around us. Everywhere. I could hear them whispering in my head as they studied my moves, exploited my weaknesses, decided on gaming strategies. Or maybe they were there only to confuse me. The spectators were watching us on the screens, but the Witches were inside the Arena, just outside the game, invisible to our eyes but an integral part of the challenges. Close enough to hinder us. It was like playing against the computer, except that the difficulties—even the configuration of the Arena itself—weren’t predetermined. Instead they were being crafted specifically for me. Only one of them was playing in my favor. In all likelihood I wouldn't have gotten as far as I had without Kreeshna’s blood in my veins. It had given me strength, healed my wounds, kept me from dying like in some stupid video game. And yet it took decision-making to win a war—and that was entirely up to me.
I didn’t know if Kreeshna was giving the other Champions a run for their money like the other Sisters were doing with me. Still, she definitely hadn’t been helping me out all that much. I raised my breastplate and saw a long gash across my side. I must have cut myself on the broken windshield when I dove into the car. Throwing back my head, I took several deep breaths.
The Witch must have sensed my agony because a wave of warmth pervaded me. I felt her blood boil in my veins. She was inside my head like a whispered sigh that I couldn’t make out. Before my eyes, the wound began to close up and the pain subsided. The one on my shoulder, though, gave no sign of healing.
Fuck you, I thought. I was used to counting only on myself. I didn’t need her.
I resigned myself and set off walking toward the city. The buildings were in ruins, the streets deserted and reduced to a cluster of slums. A shadow darted past me as swiftly as a ghost. I stayed on my guard until it passed me again, then followed it, clambering over the rubble in the street, until it vanished. It was the Soul I was looking for, I was sure of it. The next key. I just had to find it.
All at once the blare of the horn shattered the eerie silence. For a moment I stood motionless as its echo drifted away. One of the Champions had already collected all three keys and made it through the first level. How was that possible?
I sensed a presence at my back and spun around to find it right behind me. The Soul’s eyes glittered black. It was the key! I whipped out my dagger to stab it, but a spurt of black blood shot from its mouth.
“What the fuck?”
A long blade protruded from its chest a second before the Soul burst into a cloud of ash. Now I could see his killer behind him. It was another Champion. That meant we weren’t in different scenarios any more, but in a single shared virtual reality.
It wasn’t just any Champion either. I clenched my fists and Assin smiled at me, catching the black key on the tip of his sword. “Sorry, I saw him first.” I moved to attack him but the horn blew again. We both looked up as the sound diminished along with our hopes of winning the tournament.
“You’d better hurry,” Assin suggested with a smirk. He was ahead—I’d only found one key and he was already on his second. Leaping back, he landed at the foot of a mountain of debris.
I gave chase, but a distant commotion made the ground shake beneath my feet. At the end of the road a horde of ferocious gorillas appeared, charging straight at me. Their eyes gleamed ice-blue in the twilight. Squinting at them, I saw one had black eyes. He was my key. And he was ready to crush me.
All at once something clamped around my ankle, sealing it in an iron grip.
“What the hell?!”
I looked down at a hand that had burst out from the debris to hold me still. The gorillas were almost there and I was about to be trampled. There were too many of them! I
tried to break free but the grip was too strong. It must be another of the Witches’ attempts to hinder me. Now that there were fewer tickets to victory, they’d probably decided to play dirty. Was this their plan to get rid of me? I braced for impact, but suddenly the hand pulled me down through the debris into an underground cave.
I shot to my feet, instantly alert. Whoever it was that had dragged me down there was really strong. I might even have thanked them for saving me from the gorillas’ fury if it wasn’t for the fact that they had to have brought me there to kill me.
I looked around. It was a hiding place, with rags positioned here and there over openings looking out onto a street. Inside it was difficult to see. The shadow of a huge creature as massive as a tank loomed over me. The monster lit a torch, and a sigh of relief escaped me.
“Gurdan! What on earth are you doing here?”
“Gurdan save princess. Gorilla crush you.” He smashed his fist into his palm to illustrate.
I was amazed. “Did you create this hideaway down here?”
“Hide good better than hunt good.”
“I’ve got to get out of here. One of the gorillas has flickering black eyes. It has the key and I need to kill it!”
“You wait,” the ogre told me, motioning me closer. He pulled aside a small cloth, showing me what was going on outside. Huge apes were everywhere. The Damned had poured into the streets and various Champions were pulverizing them to gain an advantage. One of them was battling three Souls when a gorilla picked him up and hurled him far away. Another Champion vanished before my eyes: he must have just found his third key. The horn sounded again, even louder inside the cramped space.
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